


Nothing Much at Hogwarts

by ramannoodles



Category: Nothing Much to Do
Genre: Alternate Universe - Hogwarts, F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-09-07
Updated: 2014-10-07
Packaged: 2018-02-16 12:31:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,676
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2269797
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ramannoodles/pseuds/ramannoodles
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Beatrice had first gotten her acceptance letter to Hogwarts, she was so excited.<br/>“Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh!”  she yelled in her squeaky eleven-year-old voice as soon as she pulled the letter off of the tawny owl that had appeared at her window.</p><p>NMTD Hogwarts AU as requested by seasnns on Tumblr</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

When Beatrice had first gotten her acceptance letter to Hogwarts, she was so excited.

“Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh!” she yelled in her squeaky eleven-year-old voice as soon as she pulled the letter off of the tawny owl that had appeared at her window.

“Calm down! What’s going on?” her cousin Leo called back.

“I got into Hogwarts!  I got into Hogwarts!  Can you take me to Diagon Alley?  We need to go now!  I need my supplies!” Beatrice began, talking almost too fast for anyone to understand.

“Okay, okay, you little pipsqueak. You know you don’t need to get supplies right away, don’t you?”

“I need them noooooow,”  Beatrice was already beginning to whine.

“Okay, okay, we’ll go, we’ll get your supplies. But you have to wait until mum and mumma get home with Hero, okay?  And maybe you want to write to your parents and let them know the good news?”

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hero was sad to see Beatrice off at Platform 9 3/4.

“It’s not fair that she gets to go this year and I have to wait a whole year.  We’re practically twins, why can’t I go with her?” she complained after watching Beatrice get on board 15 minutes early.  Beatrice was too scared the train would leave without her.

“Sweetie, you know the rules. Not even a million letters to Headmaster Longbottom could change that,” Hermia responded soothingly.

“I know, but now Leo and Beatrice are going to be gone. I’m going to miss Beatrice.”

“She promised she would send you a letter everyday. And you’re still going to Muggle school, you’re not going to have time to miss her, I promise. And Verges and Balthazar are still around,” Helena tried.

“Oh yeah!” Hero had been successfully mollified.

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Standing in front of the Great Hall, Beatrice looked around at her fellow students while the Sorting Hat sang its song. She had already found her friend Ursula before the train had left.  She could see Leo sitting at the Slytherin table, smiling at her. He had already let her know that it didn’t matter which house she got into, she should be proud of that house and of having friends in other Houses.  But Bea was still nervous.  She scanned the group of the first years standing around her and her eyes stopped on two boys who were whispering enthusiastically, although she couldn’t actually hear them over the song.  One of them was an above average-looking kid, with blond hair and the other looked more like a beanpole with some dark hair sitting on top of it, he was so skinny. But it was clear that this second boy was brimming with energy and excitement.

The sorting song ended and a severe looking witch began reading off the list of names.  The first girl, an “Abel, Margaret,” was sorted immediately into Slytherin. The names kept going, and at “Donaldson, Pedro,” the blond-haired boy walked up to the hat. This time the hat took a good two minutes before exclaiming, “Gryffindor!”  Then came, “Duke, Beatrice.”  Bea practically tripped over her own feet to get to the hat.  The hat touched her head and her head filled with a voice, “Very interesting.  Strong-willed, quick to anger, but ahh, very intelligent also.  So, which will it be Ravenclaw or Gryffindor?” Beatrice didn’t have a clue how to respond to this.  Either house would make her happy, she was sure.  And then, abruptly, she heard a “Ravenclaw!” coming from outside her head. She pulled the hat off and sat down in an empty seat at the Ravenclaw table.  Several names later, “Hobbes, Benedick,” the beanpole, was also sorted into Ravenclaw.  He sat down next to her and Beatrice was irrationally pleased.  And when “Xie, Ursula” was called and sorted into Slytherin, Bea was a little upset.  Less time with Ursula wasn’t on her plan for this year.  But ever since the Battle of Hogwarts, all the Houses usually got on well, so maybe it wouldn’t be so bad.

As soon as sorting was over and the food was served, Benedick turned to her, “Was that Ursula girl who got sorted into Slytherin a friend of yours?”  He had a slight Scottish accent.

“Yeah, why do you ask?”

“Because my friend Pedro got sorted into Gryffindor, so since we both just got separated from our friends, I thought maybe we could become friends.”  He beamed at her like he had just thought of the best idea in the world. “I’m Benedick, by the way, but my friends call me Ben.”

When Bea smiled back, she had no idea what she was getting into.


	2. Chapter 2

The first week or so after Beatrice had gone off to school, Helena made sure that Hero spent as much time with Verges and Balthazar as possible. Verges was 6 compared to Hero and Balthazar’s 10, so them hanging out mostly consisted of Hero playing with Verges’ hair while Balthazar sang little songs to make them laugh. Verges hadn’t shown signs of magic yet, but her parents were hoping that she would soon. Verges didn’t have many friends, and while Squibs had been more acceptable in society since the Battle of Hogwarts had finished Voldemort off, there was no doubt that Verges would be considered an outcast. Hero and Balthazar, and Ursula of course, had been such a blessing to the family.

Balthazar understood a little bit of what it was like. He was a half-blood and his mother had been so worried when he hadn’t shown signs of magic at seven. But he was such a calm child, his emotions rarely ever showed. It wasn’t until he had seen someone bullying poor Verges in her preschool a year ago that his anger sparked and the bully had been pulled away from Verges as though by an invisible hand that his family was sure he would be a wizard.

Hero, prompt as ever, had proved herself a witch on her seventh birthday when she re-lit her candles after she had blown them out the first time. But, being the kind person she was, Hero never let Verges or Balthazar or anyone, really, feel bad for not having gotten their powers.

However, neither Hero nor Balthazar mentioned magic when they were talking to Verges. They knew she already got enough pressure from her mother.

When she was with Balthazar and Hero, Verges was a very happy, bubbly child. No one would have ever imagined that her home life wasn’t like that.

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Despite all of the coursework they were given, both Beatrice and Benedick managed to find plenty of time to hang out. During that first conversation, they had learned just how much they had in common: both enjoyed researching and reading scientific journals “because the wizarding world is going to go nowhere if we don’t at least try to understand Muggles,” they both loved to read and watch TV, and they both had a flair for insults and arguments.

During their spare time, they came up with new and clever insults, “Those fifth years are a bunch of roguish, pox-marked Nargles” and “Ugh I hate the Potions professor, he’s such a vain, troll-brained Heliopath!”

Somehow, they managed to forget about the fact that they had friends in other houses. Not completely, of course, Bea still saw Ursula in Herbology and Ben saw Pedro in Charms, and they sometimes all hung out during lunch and dinner, but mostly Ben and Bea were lost in their own little world.

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ursula was not that great at making friends. They usually just happened to be there. Back home, she had relied a lot on family friends. Her parents had been very involved in the Asian Wizarding Community and were well known amongst all Wizarding Circles, which is, of course, why she knew Beatrice and Hero and all of their friends. But, here she was, a first year, all on her own at Hogwarts. Most of her friends were a year older or a year younger and Beatrice, her only first year friend, was in Ravenclaw. She was starting to wish she had been put in Ravenclaw too.

The first week of school, she had professors asking about her parents and remarking at what a wonderful job they’d done of educating the Greater Wizarding Community on the issues of racism. She had fellow first years, and even older students, coming up to her and expecting her to be outgoing and to want to talk about the injustices of the world. When a fourth year came up to her and asked her, “Do you think it’s wrong to convince house elves that they deserve freedom? Because they like serving witches and wizards, don’t you think it’s more important just to let them know they deserve respect and let them continue to serve us?” she had wished she could melt into the ground. It wasn’t that Ursula didn’t think these things were important. She was just frustrated that the only reason anyone was coming up to her and talking was because of her parents.

That is, until a really talkative black-haired girl plopped down next to her in the common room during dinner. (Ursula had taken to avoiding the Great Hall when she wasn’t planning on eating with Bea. It was easier to pretend she didn’t exist if other people weren’t around to remind her that she did.) “Oh my gosh! Did you hear about what happened outside one of the Transfiguration classes today?” the girl barely paused, before, “That boy, Pedro, you’ve heard of him? He got all up in the face of this third year for being a baby about getting friendzoned. Professor Nguyen had to break them apart, but when everyone explained what happened, this Pedro kid didn’t even get points taken away! Isn’t that ridiculous?”

The girl finally looked at Ursula. “Oh! I’m Meg, by the way. I mean, Margaret, but I prefer Meg. I can’t believe I forgot to introduce myself first. What’s your name?”

“Is this a joke?” Ursula was annoyed. She had wanted peace and quiet and this girl, Meg or whatever, was trying to be funny about not knowing her name.

“The Pedro thing? It does kind of seem like a joke doesn’t it-”

“No, I mean-” And then it occurred to Ursula that maybe Meg _didn’t_ know who she was, “I mean, yeah, that’s super unfair of the professors to not take points away. He did break the rules, after all. Oh, and my name is Ursula.”

“Cool, it’s nice to meet you Ursula!”

Maybe first year wasn’t going to be so bad after all.


	3. Chapter 3

A couple weeks into the school year, Bea and Bean were watching some third years finish up their Care of Magical Creatures lesson.  Ben was trying to explain the magnificence of the hippogriff when Hagrid called them over, “Duke, Hobbes, what are you doing here?  Not planning to go into the Forbidden Forest, I hope?”

"No, no, nothing like that, Professor Hagrid, sir" Ben squeaked.  "I just- I really wanted to see the hippogriffs up close.  You see, they’re such majestic creatures-and I-umm-"

"Ben’s really fond of animals, sir," Bea interrupted.

Hagrid seemed very pleased to hear that, “In that case, would you like to come in for a bit of tea?”

"We’d love to!" Ben said, almost before Hagrid could finish, bouncing up and down.

Hagrid would have spent the better portion of an hour talking about all of the animals he had owned if it weren’t for Beatrice’s constant interruptions, asking about the famous Hermione Granger.  “What was she like in school?  She was brilliant, right?  I know she was brilliant, I mean just look at that new law she enacted on the treatment of House Elves.  I’m going to be just like her when I grow up.”

Hagrid, fortunately, was not too annoyed about this, mostly because he was so fond of Hermione, especially now that she was teaching him to do magic again; his once sullied record had been cleaned by Kingsley when he became Minister of Magic.

The conversation finished when an exhausted Hagrid told the two Ravenclaws, “Alright now, I think that’s enough questions for one evening.  You best get back up to the castle before curfew.  I promise you can come back any time with the rest of your questions.”  And before they could protest, they were pushed out the door.

—————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————-

The next morning at breakfast, Bea and Ben were looking at the Daily Prophet.  The Headline read, “A goblin has gone missing from Gringotts.”

"A goblin went missing?  How does that even happen?" Bea asked.

"I don’t know, but it looks like the Gringotts goblins are refusing to speak about it.  Look here, it says that even Hermione couldn’t get them to talk."  Ben replied.

"That’s strange.  Usually everyone listens to Hermione."

"Not everyone, remember when she was in school and she came up with SPEW-"

"Okay, maybe everyone didn’t listen to her back then, but they listen to her now, don’t they?"

"Fair point, b-"

But just then a commotion at the front of the Great Hall took their attention away from their argument.  It looked like a Slytherin and a Gryffindor had gotten into a fight.  Benedick watched on in horror as one of the students got pummeled; Beatrice was ready to jump up at any moment in case she was needed.  The Prophet sat forgotten.

—————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————-

Ursula was sitting in the Slytherin Common Room, listening to Meg chatter on and on about some movie she had seen over the summer holidays with her Muggle friends.  She was talking about how wrong they had gotten the part about fairies when a boy walked in.  Usually, Ursula would not even have noticed this, but Meg’s sudden silence forced her to turn and look at the boy.  She looked at Meg’s facial expression, confused.  A couple more glances, and then it dawned on her, “Do you like him?  That boy?”  she whispered.   Meg shot her a nasty glance.

It wasn’t until the boy had left for his room that Meg started talking again, “Oh my gosh, I cannot believe you just said that!  What if he heard you?”

"Sorry, I thought I was being quiet enough.  Who was that anyway?"

"Oh my gosh, you don’t know?! That’s Robert Borachio, he’s a second year.  And he’s soooo cute."

"Isn’t he the one who made those two Gryffindor first years cry in the Great Hall this morning?  He doesn’t seem very nice."

"But he’s hot!  And that was only a one-time thing, I’m sure of it."

"That does not make him a nice person."

"I’m not asking _you_ to like him!”  Meg was now on the defensive.

"I’m not asking you _not_ to like him.”  Ursula pointed out.

"Okay, fine, let’s talk about who you like then."

"No one," Ursula answered, without hesitation.  Meg wasn’t paying attention.

"Ooh, I bet you like that Pedro kid, he’s the nice guy type."

"No, Meg, I’m not intr-"

"Or that music boy you keep talking about what’s his name again?"

"Balthazar, and he’s my _friend_.  That’s why I keep talkin-“

"Okay, fine what about that blond kid in our potions class, you’re always talking to him.  Do you like him?"

"Like do I think he’s a good person or am I interested in him?" Ursula joked.

"Do you _like_ him, come on stop avoiding the question!” Meg clearly hadn’t thought it was funny.

"I don’t lik-"

"Well, you must like someone, so who is it?"  Meg paused, "Oooohh, do you like girls?  Is that what it is?  That must be why you’re always talking about that Hero chick from back home-"

"No! Meg, listen, I really don’t like anyone!"

"Fine if you say so," Meg harrumphed, clearly believing Ursula just wanted to keep her in the dark.  Ursula thought maybe Meg was angry, but then she started up about the movie again, and Ursula knew everything was okay.  But maybe she needed to find someone to like.  She couldn’t have this happen again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it's taken me so long to update this, I promise I haven't forgotten and I'm going to keep posting, but it might take awhile. Also, sorry about Hagrid's voice being so ooc. I just don't feel that comfortable writing his voice the way it was in the books.


End file.
